Microsoft Cloud brings healthcare to India’s classrooms

A new Care N Grow app that uses Microsoft Cloud technologies is to be launched in India, allowing teachers to conduct regular health examinations on schoolchildren.

The app, developed by Dr Meghana Kambham, will help identify easily preventable diseases, in a country where there is only one paediatrician for every 3,000 schoolchildren.

The technology uses biomedical sensing and imaging to build a profile using answers to lifestyle and health questions. An algorithm analyses the data collected from each child and produces a clinical-grade health report. If the system identifies a problem, the database provides recommendations for the best course of action and the child’s parents are notified.

“In med school, I saw a lot of problems that got complicated because of a lack of preventive health care,” says Dr. Kambham, “When I look at a child who has a disease that could have been prevented, it feels like a chance lost. The answer to this is technology.”

Over 900 of the 6,000 children screened during the proof of concept trials were found to have preventable health conditions with 40% suffering malnutrition, 20% eye problems, and 10% obesity. Dr Kambham aims to deploy the Care N Grow across 1,200 schools targeting about 500,000 students in the states of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

Once the app is established, it could then be adapted and exported to neighbouring China and Southeast Asia, and eventually across the world, to wherever there is a poor doctor-patient ratio.

The app has been granted a patent pending status with the support of Microsoft’s #MakeWhatsNext programme for female inventors who develop problem-solving solutions around the world. It will be launched formally in November.

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